Healthcare: Bamboozling the progressives – again

Obama was nervous enough about getting the 216 votes for the healthcare bill, that after courting the blue dogs as usual, he even met with the progressive caucus. In fact, he was so nervous, he even pretended to care about public option

Woolsey told Obama that she’d be introducing legislation to create a public option and Obama said he encouraged the effort, according to Schakowsky.

(in other words: “good luck with that!”). For added gratuity

Obama pointed Kucinich toward single-payer language that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was able to get into the bill. Kucinich fought for an amendment that would allow states to adopt single-payer systems without getting sued by insurance companies. Obama told Kucinich that Sanders’s measure was similar but doesn’t kick in for several years. “He definitely wrote it down,” said one member of Kucinich, suggesting that he’d look into it.

Woolsey, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who was present with around seven or eight other liberals, says Obama compared the health reform fight to the passage of Social Security and Medicare.

Two senior administration officials said the White House is telling Democrats reconsidering their support for health care reform that they will pay the price for their original vote no matter what happens, so they should reap the political benefits of actually passing a law.

Obama’s Reprehensible Rhetoric Against Single-Payer

here’s one aspect of it

Here’s how he put it: “I don’t believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America.”

By damning “government bureaucrats,” Obama played right into the hands of the anti-government crowd and made any durable expansion of health care coverage all the more difficult. He also insulted every single federal employee in the Medicare and Medicaid and VA and Indian health programs.

So, aren’t you glad he wrote things down and promised to “revisit” the Public Option? I am so excited with anticipation, I can’t sleep at night!

“They’re using reconciliation to pass the great big bill,” Gregg said during an appearance on CNBC. “Once they pass the great big bill, I wouldn’t be surprised if the White House didn’t care if reconciliation passed. I mean, why would they?”
“If you’re in the House and you’re saying, ‘Well, I’m going to vote for this because I’m going to get a reconcilation bill,’ I would think twice about that,”
“In my opinion, reconciliation is an exercise for buying votes, which, once they have the votes they really don’t need it,”

3 comments

Obama actually used the “government bureaucrats” moniker????? That is akin to scum-sucking bottom feeders of the public trough??? I still don’t get how progressives believe he is LIBERAL when he is so willing to insult them using anti-govt terminology!!!!

And the Prog Caucus still thinks he’s gonna slip in the public option at the 11th hour using his 11th dimensional chess techniques?